Hostage (Bodyguard #1)(83)
As the colonel ended his transmission, Alpha team exchanged uneasy looks with one another, each aware what Colonel Black meant by ‘deadline’.
From the corner of the room came a shout. Leaning back in his chair, Bugsy slapped his forehead with the flat of his hand. ‘So that’s what they’ve done!’ he exclaimed, shaking his head in frustrated disbelief.
‘What?’ asked Amir.
Bugsy beckoned them over to his workstation. ‘These terrorists are using a number of crafty technical tricks to mislead us. I’ve just digitally compared their two videos and both have a distinctive call to prayer sounding in the background. I extracted them both from the audio. Look at the two wave patterns. They’re an exact match!’
On the monitor two graphic sine waves appeared. Using his mouse, Bugsy dragged and dropped one on top of the other. The two patterns were identical.
‘So what does that mean?’ asked Ling.
‘The “call to prayer” has been added in post-production, after the recording had been made,’ explained Bugsy. ‘Whoever their techie is, he’s good. He anticipated that we’d search for a location clue in the first video and planted it on purpose for us to discover, making us think they were somewhere else. But he’s used the same trick twice.’
Bugsy now pulled up a stream of code on his computer workstation.
‘Next, I analysed the two emails the President received. As we already know, the terrorists misdirected us over the origin of the email, using fake IP addresses and server relays. I thought my beta program had cracked the source. But see this code here.’ He pointed to a bewildering collection of numbers and commands. ‘This indicates the terrorist programmer set up the equivalent of an “infinity loop” between servers.’
‘What’s an infinity loop?’ asked Marc.
‘Like two mirrors opposite one another, this piece of code creates a duplicated signal that bounces between two servers continuously. To my program, this appeared to be a dead end, the “origin” of the email. Whereas in fact it was a “doorway” that only opens on command.’
‘So, can you now trace the source?’ asked Charley.
Bugsy grimaced and shook his head. ‘We’d have to access the mirrored servers at the exact moment the terrorists send another email. The chances of doing that are next to zero. I’m afraid there’s no more I can do. Wherever he is, Connor’s on his own.’
The cell door clanged shut. Connor kicked at it in frustration and fury.
‘You gutless coward! You scumbag!’ he roared.
He wanted to pound the terrorist leader to a pulp. He was no longer scared. He was angry.
Anger is only one letter away from danger. His unarmed combat instructor’s words repeated in his head. Control your anger, otherwise anger will control you and you’ll lose focus. As a buddyguard, you want to fight smarter not harder.
Giving the steel door one last kick, Connor checked his temper. He knew he had to think clearly and focus on the situation at hand. But their cruel toying with Alicia’s life had boiled his blood. In that split-second moment when the masked leader had pulled the trigger, a crushing grief had overwhelmed him, compounded by the realization that he’d failed to protect her. But no thundering blast of gunfire had followed and Alicia had opened her eyes, stunned to discover that she was still alive. At first Connor only felt relief. Then he became concerned for her as she just knelt in a zombie-like trance until the end of the video, before allowing herself to be dragged back to their cell.
Having vented his fury on the locked door, Connor turned to see Alicia slide down the wall and slump to the floor. She pulled her knees to her chest and stared vacantly at the opposite wall.
‘Alicia, are you all right?’ he asked.
She didn’t reply, just continued gazing into the distance.
Bending down, he touched her shoulder gently, worried the mock execution had broken her spirit.
‘Alicia? It’s OK. I’m with you.’
Alicia mumbled something.
‘What was that?’
A single tear rolled down her cheek. ‘We’re going to die.’
‘No, we’re not,’ countered Connor, although his words seemed to ring hollow. With time fast running out, any hopes of rescue were rapidly dwindling. And the terrorists seemed determined to follow through on their threats. If there was ever a situation for a last resort, this was it. They had to escape. Connor looked round the tiny windowless cell. He’d already inspected every inch of it for a weakness and had found none. As he racked his brains for a plan, he noticed Alicia trembling from the effects of trauma-induced shock.
‘Stay with me,’ he pleaded, trying to get her to focus on his face. ‘We’ll find a way to escape, somehow. I promise you.’
‘All hell’s broken loose,’ said Lara, the Press Secretary dashing in and switching on the TV in the President’s private study of the West Wing. ‘The story’s running on every news channel, worldwide.’
Turning his gaze to the TV screen, President Mendez sank back into his leather chair and braced himself for the media storm. He was joined in his study by the core members of the National Security Council: the White House Chief of Staff, the Secretary of State, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of Secret Service and General Shaw. Together they watched as a series of news bulletins flashed across the screen.